Koichi Iiboshi

Kinji Fukasaku directed this powerful and uncompromising look at the deadly stakes of life among the Yakuza -- the Japanese Mafia. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) is a former Japanese soldier who, following his nation's defeat in World War II, finds himself in a prison cell in Hiroshima on a murder charge. While behind bars, Hirono gains a loyal friend in fellow criminal Wagasugi (Tatsuo Umemiya), and upon his release Hirono joins Wagasugi in an underworld gang. What starts as a seemingly easy way to earn some quick money becomes something darker and bloodier... (All Movie Guide)

Hirono, now dug deep into a Japanese crime family based in Hiroshima, finds a new adversary in the person of Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba), a ruthless killer who is willing to do anything to promote his family's interests. Meanwhile, Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji) is an ambitious criminal who quickly scales the hierarchy of the Muraoka family, but his fall proves as sudden as his ascent. (All Movie Guide)

Kinji Fukasaku's violent chronicle of mob warfare in post-war Hiroshima continues with this, the third film in the Yakuza Papers series. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) struggles to remain independent and neutral in the midst of an ongoing battle between two mob families, but his drams of brokering a balance between them are dashed when a crime syndicate from Kobe enters the picture. (All Movie Guide)

A long-standing gang war on the streets of Hiroshima escalates despite police pressure in this, the fourth film in Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series. It's 1964, and with the Tokyo Olympics turning the eyes of the world to Japan, lawmen have set out to keep the Yakuza -- Japan's organized crime system -- out of sight. (All Movie Guide)

n this violent and morally ambiguous crime drama from master genre filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku, Takeda (Akira Kobayashi), a longtime leader of one of Hiroshima's Yakuza families (the Japanese Mafia), attempts to resolve the longtime war between various mob factions by reshaping his organization into a political organization that would be both powerful and legal. (All Movie Guide)

The movie is set in Kure (same place as Yakuza Papers part 1), and the initial story once again revolves around the Yamamori clan. Boss Yamamori is the same whining, crying bastard you hate from the original series. In this new series Bunta plays Mikio Miyoshi of the Yamamori family. He is a similar type of character to the one he played in the first set of movies. These new ones are differernt though. There is a lot more (uncoregraphed) gun violence. (KG)

Based on a novel "The Battle Of The Yanagawa-Gumi" by Koichi Iiboshi, it tells the story of criminal Jiro Yanagawa. Released from prison, Jiro the notorious Yoshimizu Yakuza family as a member. Not long after however, he sets out to form his own Yakuza clan in Osaka. This sparks a bloody territory war with the Devils Dragons. (imdb)

The story of a drunken fighter (Sugawara) and an ailing, blind singer (Baisho) amid the power struggle between the Shogunate government and the Emperor in mid-19th century Japan. (imdb)

A yakuza leader must balance his violent tactics necessary for the rough streets of 1960s Tokyo with the domestic needs of his daughters.

Former childhood friends Kadoya Kaneo and Tochino Masatatsu cross paths again. Kaneo is now a yakuza member, while Masatatsu is a nightclub owner with a distaste for crime gangs. When a yakuza boss dies, a struggle for his position takes place between Kaneo's boss Awano and the young Nakahira. Nakahira's men try to extort money from Masatatsu, bringing him in between a yakuza battle.

Masao works in a pastry shop, and appears to be a perfectly pleasant fellow, but this changes at night time. Using his telescope, he spies upon, and falls in love with, a beautiful woman who lives in the opposite apartment.